Dev Blog 7
Blog 7 - DRADIS Contact & Interdiction Mission Guide 30 August 2013 'Introduction' This developer’s blog we will discuss the new mini-game called DRADIS Contact and the new Interdiction Duties that take part in the 46 Graeae (pronounced Gry-eye) sector. Since it’s fundamentally different than Triad and Prophecy, we thought it would be good to give you a basic manual and overview of the feature. 'DRADIS Contact?' DRADIS Contact is our new mini-game which replaces Triad and Prophecy. Rather than have two different games, both factions have now the chance to play the same game instead of two different games. 'How to Play DRADIS Contact?' DRADIS Contact is played by selecting targets, then launching rockets at the targets. Rewards are gained with the targets are destroyed. If you fire multiple rockets at once, your chance of getting a better selection of rewards increases, because items in the loot table are eliminated as they are rewarded. There are no duplicate rewards. Playing a game of DRADIS Contact is made up of the following steps: *Step 1: Target Selection When you enter the game, you will not be able to fire rockets until you select at least one enemy. You may select multiple enemies at once, but you can play by firing a single rocket. Once you have selected at least one target, the fire button will become active. If you have selected too many targets, then you can simply click on a target to deselect it. You may be wondering why more shots cost a little bit extra. The costs are based on the chance to win. As each item is unique, it’s not possible to win one specific item twice in one round. That also means that the 2nd (up to 6th) shot will have increased chances for higher value items as the loot table gets smaller. *Step 2: FIRE! When you press the fire button, you will get a confirmation with the total cubit cost. You can disable this pop-up if you like, but it’s handy to have if you are cubits pinching at the moment. *Step 3: Rewards Phase & Replay After you have pressed the Fire button, your rewards will be revealed. 'Potential Rewards' You will win a mix of currency, some items, and most importantly, FTL Coordinates. FTL Coordinates required for gaining access to the three Interdiction Duties. Once you have your rewards, you have to click “Reload” in order to play again. If you don’t want to play again, then you can simply close your window. 'How do I win the jackpot?' The jackpot is like all the other items, you don’t have to do something special, just play the game. As you may have seen, the jackpot is also the same for all players, but changes every day. So, while there is a chance for a booster on one day, you could win a map package or cubits on another. So, check every day in case there is something special you are after. Plus, you get a free shot every day, so why not take advantage of it. You might just get lucky. 'Interdiction Duties' These missions are a completely revamp of the known FTL mission. They are aimed for being more interesting, enticing and last but not least more challenging. We’ve set them in a brand new sector, with new asteroids and other terrain to make it unique and interesting. If you want to get an idea of where we are taking our sector design, then this is a pretty good example. Interdiction Duties take place in the 46 Graeae sector. 46 Graeae is a region of space dominated by the gas giant, Sappho. Its gases intermingle creating a series of three super storms which move across its surface called the “Three Sisters”. Ringing the gas giant is a set of massive rings that glitter in the light of a distant sun. The area between the rings and the planet is known as the Tooth. The Tooth is an area of space where many ships have met their end and it’s dense with debris and gas clouds. There is an area that is where large ships can move through safely, and the area has become a major transition point for both Cylon and Colonial freighters trying to go unnoticed. The basic structure of the missions revolves around destroying convoys trying to move through the Tooth. Each mission consists of special seven waves and every defeated wave will count toward your final reward. One of the great features of these missions is the randomness in the waves. Some of the waves can be different from mission to mission, so you’re never quite sure what you are going to get. Also, the enemies are a bit smarter than before. They use special abilities and will try to exit the sector if you try to draw them. They want to escape, they don’t want a fight. They also have some special behaviors, so it’s not going to be simple as it has in the past. Finally, the waves are moving to a jump out point, and if you aren’t fast enough then they might get away. We’ve designed the waves to require some travel time to get to, and that’s so you can repair along the way. 'How do I enter those?' There is this new “map system” next to the DRADIS Contact mini-game. On any round of firing, you can win map coordinates related to the three maps. It’s also possible to earn multiple map coordinates in one launch cycle. If you have collected all coordinates for one map, you can directly enter them. But be prepared – it couldn’t harm to have a missile launcher or repair kits with you. 'What about my old FTL fragments?' With the new DRADIS Contact, FTL Fragments are no longer valid and Old FTL Fragments are converted into Coordinate Packs. Each pack provides up to 10 map coordinates. Players will receive one coordinate pack for every 25 fragments or fraction of 25. A player will receive each map pack in sequence starting with Alpha, then Beta, and finally Gamma, then it will cycle back to Alpha. So a player with 155 FTL Fragments would receive the following coordinate pack distribution: *46 Graeae Alpha: 3 *46 Graeae Beta: 2 *46 Graeae Gamma: 2 'Interdiction Duty Rewards' The reward system is similar to the dynamic missions. You get a reward ranking in the end of the mission based on participation and success. The rewards ranks are bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Additionally to Cubits you can earn nuclear weapons, ammunition and new special weapons available only through the Interdiction Duties. 'Why did we remove Triad and the old FTL Mission?' As we’ve been working on the game, we felt the visual and gameplay quality of the FTL missions and the Triad/Prophecy games were really not at the level that Battlestar Galactica deserves. This is an example of the general visual quality we are aiming for as we improve the game. Triad and Prophecy weren’t very exciting, and were basically a passive experience. As we improve the game with a solid visual style in our new UI. We also wanted to create a unified system for the game. While it isn’t as personalized to the faction as it was before, having a single mini-game to update means it’s easier to make changes and improve. We want to give you more options for winning in the game, and designing two games in parallel is not a good use of resources. Also, the old FTL missions were not very compelling. If you were going to spend time playing these missions, we wanted something where you had to think a bit and adapt to changing situations. We also wanted to make sure the enemies were actually challenging in ways other than just more hit points and more damage. They needed to act more like a player would, and as we move along the enemies in the missions and the open world will get a bit smarter. As a whole, we just wanted it to be more fun. Also, we wanted to have the missions more flexible based on what you decided to equip for the mission. We designed a new system to scale our enemies. Enemies now scale their strength based on the gear your ship is equipped with. The system examines your gear, and derives a score from that. That score is used to scale the enemies in the mission to be a challenge for you regardless of what ship you are piloting. Finally, we wanted to put them in a more interesting environment, and we used this sector as a test bed for some of the visual changes we want to make to the other sectors in the game. The Hades sector was our first venture into making a unique and high quality sector, and this sector is the next stage of our new art style. As we move forward, we will work to improve the art in the open-world sectors. We hope you really enjoy the new game and new content. As we move forward, you’ll be seeing more quality like this, and we hope you have a great time playing through this content and the features we bring you in the future. Category:Developer Blogs